Biden admin. holding out hope for hostage deal before Trump inauguration

Secretary of State Antony Blinken says White House is pushing for ceasefire and hostage deal to be finalized in next two weeks, amid reports Hamas has handed over list of Israeli hostages.

By World Israel News Staff

The Biden administration is working behind the scenes to secure a hostage deal and ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump two weeks from now.

Speaking at a press conference in South Korea Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration remains hopeful it can finalize an agreement to free the remaining roughly 100 hostages and bring an end to the fighting in Gaza before the president leaves office.

“We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining,” Blinken said.

“We have been working intensely to bring this agreement…that President Biden put forward back in May, and that the entire world got being, country after country…we’re working very hard to bring that over the finish line.”

Blinken suggested that recent talks in Doha, Qatar had displayed “intensified engagement” by negotiators, including Hamas’ delegation, potentially signaling that a breakthrough is possible.

“What we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks is a intensified engagement, including by Hamas. But we have yet to see agreement on the final points,” Blinken continued.

“We will work every minute of every day of those two weeks to try to get that to happen.”

“We want to reach the finish line in the talks for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip within two weeks, and get the hostages out of there.”

Israel dispatched Mossad chief David Barnea, who is leading the Israeli negotiating team, back to Doha on Monday for the latest round of talks, after Biden administration envoy Brett McGurk arrived in the Qatari capital.